1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to consumer electronic devices and more particularly, methods and apparatus for providing microphone capabilities for consumer electronic devices.
2. Description of the Related Art
Many consumer electronic devices provide capabilities for both sound capture and sound generation. For example, portable media players, cellphones, laptop computers, netbook computers and tablet computers often provide capabilities for both sound capture and sound generation. Typically, on these devices, a microphone of some type is used for capturing sound and a speaker of some type is used for generating sound. The microphone and speaker are usually located within an interior of a housing associated with the device.
In various applications, the sound capture and sound generation capabilities are used alone or in combination with one another. For instance, a sound capture capability, such as a microphone, can be used alone as part of an application to record a voice memo, to record a conversation or to input voice commands. Further, a sound generation capability, such as a speaker, can be used alone as part of an application to output music or to playback a message, such as a voice memo or a phone message. In combination, a sound capture and sound generation capability are often used in communication applications. For instance, during a communication between a user and a remote party on a cellphone that includes a microphone and a speaker, the microphone can be used to capture sounds generated from the user while the speaker can be used to output sound from the remote party delivered to the device via the cellular or data network.
In a communication application on a consumer electronic device, where a speaker and a microphone are used simultaneously, it is desirable to isolate the microphone from sounds generated by the speaker. In particular, it is desirable to isolate the microphone from sounds that are transmitted from the speaker through an interior of the consumer electronic device. Thus, in the following sections, methods and apparatus for providing microphone sound isolation are described.